Music: 'Chant of the Sun' - Turn up volume to really (((HEAR))) the beautiful chant.
Native American masks are beautiful, mysterious, frightening, silly ... the purpose of masks, as with most things associated with the Native cultures, vary from tribe to tribe -- some spiritual, some healing, some for entertaining. Native Americans had a deep relationship with animals in their environment and adopted the "spirit" of various animals to help them on their life's quest. It was believed that when a person put on a mask for a ceremony, the spirit of the animal depicted in the mask entered the person wearing it and shared in the spirit/power of that animal. Some masks were portrait masks, intended to portray an important figure. Some were used by a culture's secret society, for instance a war society or a healing society. Some were worn by shamans... some were used in the Northwest Coast's potlatch ceremonies.